It’s taken a while to get hold of this bike. The images have been out there for a while to tempt us with elegant swoopy matt black lines. It seems like an eternity since I first arranged to get hold of this machine when it was first redesigned and re-launched as a race bike for rough roads.

On unpacking the box I was mildly disappointed. Rather than the full spec bike dripping with high spec jewelry the machine I had in front of me was a bit of a mish-mash of componentry that had obviously done the rounds of the demo-shows. As such, it was built up with a workmanlike level of parts rather than the bling it’s listed with.

However that disappointment soon passed when I’d got the bike together. It begged, no clammered, for a photo-call. It’s certainly a looker. All of the black swoopy lines that suggest speed and comfort from its fully suspended well rounded quasi-lowracer form, got me reaching for the camera before I’d even gotten on it! Lacking the budget to nip over to an exotic location with a few palm trees, the pond on the carpark at work had to suffice as a backdrop.

So onto the first ride… Super smooth. Like an iced smoothie half-way through a hot ride smooth. Okay done. Review over. That was easy. It’s smooth.

It’s not quite that simple though. My first ride out revealed a slightly different side to the bike. Going up a hill the rear end started suffering from some severe bucking. Every time I tried putting the hammer down, so to speak, the low-end DNM rear coil shock would show it’s undamped ugly side. Riding with virtually no sag at all got rid of most of this, but altered the ride characteristics making the front-end work too hard.

It should be noted that the bike comes as standard, in either of its variations, with a much better cane creek air shock on rear gunner duties rather than this rear shock. It also has a pair of velocity wheels and a Stronglight Carbon chainset, all of which would knock considerable amounts of beef off the weight of the bike as I received it.

I’ve done a few miles on the bike. In a variety of situations and can say that I really enjoyed riding it. It is very comfortable bike and that may be part of the problem. The suspension does do a wonderful job of allowing you to float along blissfully unaware of what’s going on underneath you, but the bike feels so comfortable that there’s no desire to go particularly quick on it. A couple of other BHPC members also remarked the same thing after trying it out. Despite having what I find is a pretty low top end at 115 gear inches (the production bike has 135+) I didn’t really find I wanted to sprint down any of the hills around by me, I was more than happy to let it coast.

I did swap the wheels out for a lighter pair and it improved the acceleration no end and putting an air shock on the rear with some decent adjustable damping really calmed the suspension down under effort. However, I was still most happy cruising along on it at about 18mph. Something I was more than content with doing all day long.

The only other nitpick I’ve got was with the tyres. I’m not a fan of Continentals. I know others are but in my opinion the GPs are very fast rolling in a straight line, but don’t like being leant over at harsh angles whilst cornering. There just isn’t much rubber surface there to grip with. They proved my doubts when the front decided that it really wanted to learn how to fly at the least opportune moment and jumped off the tarmac whilst cornering at 15mph. The gravel rash has gone now, as have the mental scars…

The headtube shock fork I received on the bike doesn’t allow a change to my current favourite Marathon Racers but popping a Stelvio on the front solved that problem. The production bike comes with an asymmetric fork which should have more tyre clearance.

Despite the grumbles I actually quite like this bike. The seat height is higher than most lowracers, putting it firmly in the quasi (or sports class) camp. It has a simple but well executed chain management system that allows it to be ridden at low speed and in traffic happily. As an audax or fast day ride bike it would excel, especially with banana bags, mudguard fittings allow full guards to allow poor weather use. Which I guess is what Optima was aiming for however I don’t feel it’s a race-bike, a brevet bike yes, race no. It’s more in the class of the HPVelotechnik Speed Machine or the Challenge Fujin than Optima’s own Baron or Challenge Fujin SL.

Oh… Then there’s the looks! Everybody that stopped to talk about it remarked on it. Full black looks sexy, and it definitely looks fast. In fact there were several comments from passing motorists (and a motorcyclist) that the bike was sexy. At least I’m fairly sure it was the bike they were talking about.